1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to apparatus commonly (but not exclusively) used in connection with the drilling of oil and gas wells. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus used in combination with commercially available drill cuttings boxes, which enables the user to easily and quickly shift the drill cuttings inlet to successive drill cuttings boxes as the boxes are filled, with greatly increased safety and efficiency.
2. Related Art
In the course of drilling a well (whether an “oil well” or “gas well”), a volume of “drill cuttings” are generated—namely, the earth that is removed from the ground in the course of drilling the earthen borehole. As is well known in the field of rotary drilling, the earth is brought to the surface in the form of small “drill cuttings” or “cuttings,” carried in the stream of drilling fluid, typically a liquid “drilling mud.” The combined drilling mud/drill cuttings stream is processed (by shakers and other equipment well known in the relevant art) so as to remove the drill cuttings and route the drilling mud for circulation back downhole.
On many drilling locations, the drill cuttings must be transferred to large boxes, which by way of example may have a capacity of 25 oil field barrels and are typically made of metal, known as “cuttings boxes,” for disposal away from the drilling location. As can be seen in FIG. 1, a typical cuttings box is a generally elongated box having at least one top hinged lid, and a hinged relief hatch. The lid is bolted shut with a number of nuts and bolts, and is quite heavy, typically 80 to 100 lbs. To open the lid for access to the interior of the cuttings box, all of the bolts must be removed (which is time consuming), and the lid rotated back on its hinges. Due to the weight of the lid, and the various pinch points presented, a number of accidents have occurred in the lid manipulation process, given that workers are typically in a hurry to get lids opened and closed. In addition, at least two workers are generally needed to perform the lid opening and/or closing.
While various means of transferring the cuttings into the cuttings boxes are used, one common system is a vacuum system. Vacuum systems use a high volume air stream at pressures typically slightly below atmospheric, which pull the drill cuttings from the rig through a pipe, hose or other conduit, to a cuttings box, where the drill cuttings fall out in the cuttings box and air is discharged or pulled from the cuttings box through an air outlet and a hose to the vacuum source.
Current vacuum systems utilize a so-called “false lid” having two conduits or hoses connected thereto: a cuttings inlet hose running from the cuttings source to the cuttings inlet on the false lid, and an air outlet hose running from the air outlet on the false lid to the vacuum source. In the prior art systems, the cuttings box lid must be opened as described above and rotated back. The false lid (which itself is large and heavy) is then installed over the resulting lid opening. Cuttings are pulled through the inlet hose in the vacuum air stream; the cuttings then enter the cuttings box through a cuttings inlet and drop into the cuttings box, and air is discharged from the box through an air outlet and the outlet hose, typically next through an air buffer tank (in which drops out any further cuttings or liquids) and thence to the vacuum source. During periods of drilling which generate a high volume of drill cuttings, boxes may fill every 10 to 15 minutes. As a result, the false lid must be removed from the cuttings box; the lid rotated closed and bolted shut; the lid on an empty cuttings box opened and the false lid installed, and cuttings received into the new empty box. Suffice to suggest that this process must be repeated in rapid sequence, at perhaps 10 to 15 minute intervals during periods of high cuttings volume, and the opportunity for injuries is correspondingly high. At times, drilling must be halted while cuttings boxes and the related equipment can be changed, with a resulting loss of efficiency and incursion of related costs.